water flea

Other forms: water fleas

Definitions of water flea

1. noun

   minute free-swimming freshwater copepod having a large median eye and pear-shaped body and long antennae used in swimming; important in some food chains and as intermediate hosts of parasitic worms that affect man e.g. Guinea worms
   synonyms: cyclops

   type of:

   copepod, copepod crustacean

   minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish
2. noun

   minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae
   synonyms: daphnia

   type of:

   branchiopod, branchiopod crustacean, branchiopodan

   aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding